Sorry but it's me again, the orchid newbie!!...so what you are saying is now that it has produced a spike from the centre and not a new leaf, it will not grow any more leaves?? If this is so, I also take this to mean it will not get any bigger (but may produce a keiki)and therefore not produce any more flowering spikes...assuming that spikes have formed from above all its other leaves and once a leaf has formed a spike above it wont ever do that again? Correct?....or am I really missing something important here folks? Just need to know! Thanks, Gill.

Tanie, you have to join Home Depot's Garden Club to get the coupons. They send different ones through the year. Summer 2012 I got one for buy two hostas, get one free. I don't know if they will still send one if you join now or not - but if you want to try, the link is below. I think. I've never added a link to GW, so I hope it works. We'll see. I added two new phals today. I got some photos before they drop the buds. It isn't very cold out today, so I'm hoping they won't, but they had to ride in my Jeep for a couple of hours. If they do it's okay. The roots and leaves are really healthy. Here is a link that might be useful: Home Depot Garden Club

Thanks for the quick replies to my first-ever post on my first-ever orchid --- trying to figure out whether orchids are for me. I'll experiment and see how it works out for me, still a few weeks to go before the spike hits the lights. Window & light combo is not the answer in my house, though. I constructed a basement cabinet out of shiny foil-backed insulation styrofoam, 72(w) x 25 (h) x 24 (d) with a small fan and ventilation holes. Even the floor is lined with the shiny foil. Because of the shiny stuff, according to measurements, the light fall-off is less dramatic with distance, and I'll see what happens when I put spiking phals in the area not directly under the tubes.

TJ, I do keep the AC at 69 or so at night, but during the day it gets up to 77-78 degrees. It sits on a windowsill and sometimes when the sun hits the pot it feels warm to the touch. I'm wondering if it was just the 15 degree drop in temps between night and day (maybe with the sun warming the roots it gets to 85?). I thought it needed to be more like 55-60 to spike...we definitely have not had those temps yet.